The Naughty List

by Jodi Redford

  Transferring her attention to Bram, she bobbed frantically on his cock, her cheeks hollowing as she concentrated on the taut, satiny head. He staggered, his fingers sifting through her hair. “Lace…God.”

  Her suction intensified and Bram quickly disengaged from her mouth. Shifting her focus to Ry, she attempted to lick the drop of precome pearling from the slit of his cock, but he thwarted her efforts by stooping and sweeping her into his arms. Without saying a word, he carried her into the bedroom and tossed her onto the mattress. The carnal, almost predatory gleam in his eyes brought a renewed surge of moisture between her legs.

  She’d thought she’d seen Ry at his most primal. That didn’t hold a candle to the possessive, sexy man leaning over her. Fisting his shaft, he held it to her lips. “Five seconds, baby. That’s all you’re getting before I bury myself inside you.”

  Intent on spending her time wisely, she gripped Ry’s knuckles and squeezed as she flicked her tongue over the glossy knob of his cock. The mattress dipped, announcing that Bram had joined them. His lips closed around her clit, sucking with soft, gentle pulses. She writhed, her pussy tightening around the bullet still lodged within her. Bram’s fingers wedged inside her slick channel and easily slipped the vibrator free. “Christ, you’re fucking wet, Lace. The bullet really worked you over.”

  Without warning, Ry wrenched himself from her mouth. She gasped in protest. “That wasn’t five seconds.”

  “Close enough.” A nerve ticking in his tensed jaw, Ry yanked the drawer open on the nightstand and snatched two condoms, one of which he passed to Bram.

  After sheathing himself, Bram bracketed her face between his hands and crashed his mouth over hers, stealing her breath. And her last shred of sanity. His tongue plunged deep a fraction of a second before his cock followed suit. Giving her the barest moment to register his penetration, he rolled onto his back, reversing their positions. His hands tangled in her hair, holding her hostage to the continued lush invasion of his tongue inside her mouth. It was as if he wasn’t merely kissing her. No, this was hunger at its most consuming peak.

  Ry’s knee nudged her and Bram’s thighs, spreading them. An instant later, the heat of his chest blanketed her back. Sandwiched as she was between the two strong, sexy men who’d breathed her fantasies into life, she couldn’t contain the shiver that trembled through her. Ry kissed her neck, stoking her pleasure higher. His cock slid along the crease of her ass before coming to rest at the juncture where she and Bram were already joined.

  His thumb pressing down on Bram’s shaft, Ry eased his way inside her pussy. A sharp intake of breath hissed between Bram’s teeth. “Jesus.”

  Dazed, she felt her channel stretching to accommodate both Ry and Bram. Impaled on so much cock, she shuddered, the overwhelming fullness threatening to make her climax without much effort on Ry and Bram’s part. “Oh. God.”

  Bram’s gaze locked with hers, his gorgeous features a study of agonized pleasure. “Lace. Fuck.”

  “I—I don’t think I can. Too tight to move.”

  His laugh gusted free, the sound hoarse and strained. “Shit, you’re telling me.”

  Ry’s bristly jaw buffed her cheek. “So you two are saying I have to do all the work? Typical.” He flexed his hips, his cock retreating slightly before surging deeper. The friction against the sensitive walls of her pussy filled her with a dark, decadent pleasure. The sensations skyrocketed when Ry straightened his arms, his fingers digging into the bedding as he balanced his weight, and slammed forward, grinding her and Bram into the mattress.

  Bram’s mouth went slack, his pupils dilating and becoming unfocused. Tiny beads of sweat dotted his forehead. The tortured sound that tore from his chest made her nipples tighten.

  “Not…” Ry pumped once, “…before…” twice, “…Lacey.” His third thrust pinned them tight to the mattress again.

  Bram’s pleading gaze bore into hers. It was all the invitation her body needed to explode. She arched with a strangled scream, her inner muscles clamping down on the two cocks buried deep within her. The emotional avalanche decimated her, reducing her to a sobbing, quivering wreck. It wasn’t until the raw, scratchiness of her throat became noticeable that she even recognized the fact that her screams had morphed into actual words.

  Words that even then were spinning in the air with horrible, alarming clarity. “I love you. Oh God, I love you.” The echoing shouts of completion from Bram and Ry hardly drowned out her damning confession.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Her heart thundering, she rolled off Bram the second Ry dismounted. She started to jump off the bed, but Bram’s fingers cuffed her wrist, stalling her short.

  “Lace, look at me.”

  Despite every internal defense mechanism warning her not to do it, she obeyed his soft command. His eyes held an overflow of tenderness. “Don’t be freaked out because of what you admitted. We love you too. Have for a long time.”

  His unexpected words hammered into her. Pulse speeding out of control, she jerked her gaze to Ry, who was watching her with an expression identical to Bram’s. “What?”

  “That’s right, baby. We’ve been madly, hopelessly in love with you for going on damn near fifteen years.”

  “But…” The panic bells began tolling in her head. “You never said anything. Never so much as hinted…” Her eyes narrowed. “You were going to let me marry Dan.” And look where that had gotten her. Further proof that love was only a heartache she couldn’t afford.

  Ry and Bram both grimaced, but it was Bram who ultimately addressed her accusation. “If we’d known what a cheating prick he was, we would never have let you go out with him in the first place.”

  She plunked her hands on her hips. “Let me go out with him?”

  Bram’s cheeks reddened. “Shit, that didn’t come out right.”

  Ry scooted off the mattress and walked toward her. “What Bram’s trying to say is that we wanted you to be happy. Obviously Dan didn’t feel the same way. But we can change all that now. You, Bram and I, we can forge our happiness together.”

  Like a taunting ghost that’d been waiting for the perfect moment to feed her insecurities, Olivia’s voice popped inside Lacey’s head. You know why Dan left, don’t you? Because you’re boring. A goody-goody who doesn’t know the first thing about how to please a man. Or keep him happy. Or should we say keep him period?

  Ry moved to hug her, but she stumbled out of his reach and hurried down the hallway. She could hear him and Bram following after her, but she forced herself not to look at them as she stopped in the entryway and tugged on her jeans.

  “Baby, what are you doing?”

  She pulled on her sweater, despising the way her fingers shook. “Going home.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I can’t be here right now.” Not when the walls were closing in on her and she felt like she was seconds away from throwing up.

  Before she could stop him, Bram stepped in front of the door, blocking her exit. “Whatever’s scaring you, Lace, don’t listen to it. We’re here for you.” He cupped her face, forcing her to meet the sincerity in his gaze. “Always.”

  “Please, I—I just need to be by myself for a while.”

  Ry’s hands settled on her shoulders. “Don’t shut us out, baby. Not now. Not after everything we’ve been through.”

  She swallowed, the agitation sticking in her throat. “I told you this would end up being a mistake.”

  A flash of pain flickered in Bram’s eyes. “Don’t say that. Loving each other isn’t a mistake.”

  “It will be when this doesn’t work out. And how can it? For God’s sake, Bram, there are three of us in this equation. Not exactly the norm.”

  “We’ll figure it out. Hell, it’s not like this place isn’t big enough for all of us.”

  She gaped at him. His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Or…we can move into your place. I’m not averse to selling my house. And Ry’s lease is almost up on his condo.”

  Dange
r. Danger. Danger. This was how it all started. Talk of a future that would ultimately crumble into shattered illusions. She’d been down this road before and recognized a devastating oncoming collision when she saw one. “No one is moving anywhere.” Jerking out of Bram’s and Ry’s grasps, she bent and swiped her purse from where it’d landed earlier. Straightening, she sent Bram a resolute stare while inside she trembled. “Don’t make me beg you to step away from the door.”

  Bram’s face fell. “Lace—”

  “Let her go.”

  Bram glanced at Ry in surprise. Taking advantage of his distraction, she scooted under the arm he had braced on the doorframe and reached for the knob.

  Ry’s voice wrapped around her with tenderness. “Baby, we love you. Just remember that.”

  She stumbled out the door. Halfway to her car, she realized why she was shivering spastically. She’d left her coat back in the house. Not even chilled bones would convince her to risk repeating the painful scene she’d just left. Stomach lurching, she jumped in her Pathfinder and somehow worked her shaking fingers enough to fumble the key into the ignition and steer the vehicle out of the driveway.

  The real miracle was keeping down her breakfast until she made it home to her bathroom.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Sitting through a second grade Christmas pageant with a heavy heart and an awful sickness churning in her stomach wasn’t exactly Lacey’s idea of a good time. Unfortunately, she didn’t have much choice but to grin and bear it since she’d promised her aunt Eliza weeks ago that she wouldn’t miss Jamie’s big debut as one of Santa’s elves. Being a single parent, Eliza counted on all the family support she could get. And with Lacey’s parents already down in Florida, Lacey was pretty much all Eliza and Jamie had. She couldn’t let them down.

  Somehow she managed to smile and clap when her niece and the rest of the eight year olds took their bows before giggling and scurrying toward the auditorium wings of Hofferton’s Elementary School. Clutching her purse like a lifeline, Lacey turned toward her aunt with a smile that she prayed didn’t look half as pained as it felt. “Well, give Jamie a big kiss for me and tell her I think we have a star in the making.”

  Aunt Eliza’s lips hitched into a frown. “I thought you were joining us for dinner.”

  “Thanks, but if you don’t mind, I think I’ll skip it this time. All the hours I’ve been putting in at the restaurant have really tuckered me out the past few days.” That and trying to cope with the turmoil inside her heart.

  “But, hon, it’s the holidays. Plus I know how much Jamie would love getting to have her most favoritest person in the whole world brag on her performance.”

  The woman was a freaking pro at wheedling people into going along with her plans. Lacey sighed softly. “All right, count me in.”

  “Fantastic!” Eliza hugged Lacey tight, enveloping her in a gardenia-scented cloud. The strong potency of her aunt’s perfume increased Lacey’s queasiness.

  “I’ll follow you guys. Where do you want to go?”

  “Well, I did promise Jamie she could have one of those Shirley Temples that your bartender George makes special for her.”

  Great. As if seeing Ry and Bram twelve hours a day and dodging their pleas to come back wasn’t enough to deal with, now she’d have to face them with family looking on and pretend that her world wasn’t spinning out of control. “Sounds like a plan, then. I’ll meet you there in a few.”

  After giving her aunt a kiss, she ducked out of the auditorium and hurried across the school parking lot to her car. Once inside the cold vehicle, she pressed her forehead against the steering wheel and gulped past the misery congealing in her windpipe.

  How the hell had everything turned so wrong?

  She’d known giving in to her desire for her two best friends would backfire on her. It was only supposed to be a fun, sexy affair. That she could handle. Love, on the other hand, was something she couldn’t afford to give away. Just thinking about it tightened the ball of tension riding against her sternum.

  She’d never survive it if Ry and Bram decided they didn’t want to be with her. Unlike Dan, she knew they wouldn’t try to get out of the relationship by cheating on her. No, they were too good and honorable for that. And somehow that made it worse. They wouldn’t give her an easy out. Wouldn’t commit a despicable act that would make it easy to hate them in the end. No, they wouldn’t do anything. That was the problem. Rather than hurt her, they’d stay in a relationship that they might not want.

  A wash of acid burned her throat. It was better to be practical about this and end things now, while their friendship still remained. Ry and Bram might not see things the same way she did, but when they moved on with their individual lives and found the right women to start families with, they’d realize this threesome couldn’t have worked.

  She tried not to let the idea of Ry and Bram marrying other women and settling down bother her. Why should it? She wanted them to be happy, to lead fulfilling lives filled with a surplus of love. They both deserved it. So, so much.

  Her throat constricting, she lifted her head from the steering wheel and started up the car. Less than fifteen minutes later, she pulled into the Dockside’s parking lot. With it being less than a week away from Christmas, the restaurant was at nearly full capacity.

  Good. Hopefully it meant Ry and Bram would be too busy to continue their constant quest to lure her back into their arms.

  Right. As if she stood any chance of that not happening. Steeling her spine, she sucked in a deep, steadying breath and pushed open her car door. She made it inside the restaurant just as the first new flurries of snow began swirling from the darkening sky. Unwinding the scarf from her neck, she scanned the dining room for sign of her aunt and niece. Her heart plummeted when she spotted Ry and Bram standing at Eliza and Jamie’s table.

  So much for that.

  Her steps sluggish, she started toward them. Bram said something to Jamie before tweaking her long blonde braid. The young girl beamed up at him, her gap-toothed smile a mile wide. The cramping in Lacey’s chest intensified. Bram was so amazing with kids, as was Ry. They were well suited for fatherhood.

  Didn’t they see what they’d be missing out on if they continued this three-wheeled relationship? She’d be selfish to deprive them of that.

  Ry looked up then and noticed her. His eyes were lined with fatigue. Her heart twisted, knowing that in all likelihood, she was a large portion of the reason for his sleepless nights. She swallowed and curled her fingers against her palms to resist stroking his dear face.

  “There you are, hon.” Aunt Eliza finished shrugging from her massive down coat before taking a seat. “Would you please tell your men to stop looking so gorgeous? It’s going to give a woman ideas.”

  Tell me about it. She chose to ignore Eliza’s remark, as well as the way she’d referred to Ry and Bram as Lacey’s men. Yeah, best not to allow her mind to dwell on that futile thought. Instead she settled her purse on the table and adopted a bland expression as she glanced between Ry and Bram. “I’m surprised to see you guys still here. I thought you weren’t working the night shift.”

  “We’re not,” Ry answered, his dark, penetrating stare never leaving her face. “My cousins dropped off Charlie a few minutes ago. Bram and I were thinking of taking him to see that new action flick.”

  “Charlie’s here?” Everything else fled her mind as she peered around the dining room.

  “He’s in my office,” Ry said. “Did you want to say hi to him before we take off?”

  She swallowed, the guilt surfacing that Ry had even felt compelled to ask. Before the fallout of their relationship, he would never have hesitated over such a simple thing. Hell, it probably would have been a given that she’d be tagging along with them to the movies. She hated that she’d caused this strain between them. “Of course.”

  Aunt Eliza looked up from the picture Jamie was scribbling on the paper tablecloth. “Why don’t you boys and Uncle Charlie join us for
dinner first? That’s if you haven’t eaten already.”

  Panic started to seize Lacey, but before she could open her mouth, Ry and Bram accepted Eliza’s offer. While Ry went to fetch his uncle, Bram sidled next to Lacey. He stared at her with those pleading puppy-dog eyes, and her stomach clenched.

  Why did he have to make this so much harder than it already was?

  “How’re you doing, Lace?”

  “F-fine. The pageant was lovely. Thank you again for covering for me today.” God, she sounded so stiff and formal. Would it always be like this from now on?

  The sorrow that fell across Bram’s face was unbearable to witness. Her heart feeling like it was ripping in two, she stepped around him and took the chair next to Jamie. A few minutes later, Ry showed up with Uncle Charlie. The older man’s face lit up as soon as he spotted her.

  Scooting back her seat, she stood and wrapped him in a tight hug. “Heya, Unks.” Although they weren’t blood relatives, she’d always treated him as such. Something that Charlie seemed to like. “It’s good to see you.”

  “My stubborn nephew insisted I needed to get out.” Despite the gruffness in his tone, a hint of gratefulness lurked in Charlie’s eyes as he glanced at Ry and gave a wavering smile. It must be hard, even after all these years, to have had the love of his life taken away by cancer. She couldn’t imagine what it must be like.

  Aunt Eliza pulled out the seat next to her. “Park yourself over here next to me, Charlie. It’s been a while since we’ve chatted.”

  As always, Eliza’s persuasiveness wasn’t to be denied, and Charlie dutifully complied. That left the chairs on either side of Lacey unoccupied.